Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Where Has Our Moral Compass Gone

I struggled whether to post this here or on the Political blog; however this crosses political boundaries to encompass our whole society;

Recent events have brought me to the conclusion that the opponents of bringing the Constitution home to Canada, and re-writing our Rights and Freedoms, were right; we have become a litigious nation, afraid to be anything but either politically correct or not step beyond the confines the rules that govern our behaviour in the work place or in public;
First on the list, is the death by suicide of a young mentally troubled woman, who had been bounced from one holding facility, to another, watched by 7 guards, none of whom intervened because it is alleged that it was against the work rules; no one had the moral fortitude to go against the rules and 'DO THE RIGHT THING'!!
Second a Police officer stopped a speeding motorist, who happened to be a heart specialist, on his way to an emergency at a local hospital; instead of giving all assistance the police office spent 10 minutes, writing a ticket; and we have all seen videos of how slowly the police move in those circumstances; taking more time than is necessary to go to the washroom; the officer's superior says that the giving of assistance to emergency vehicles is now not allowed due to potential insurance liability; so, the officers that gave assistance (by escorting the cabs) to my mother and several other people, who had missed their train after arriving in Canada by boat, at Quebec City, in 1953, would today have been on the carpet for misconduct;
Third, the Scanner debate or NON-debate as you will, regarding the scanning in airports of young people under the age of 18; what is the problem with people that they cannot understand the difference between pornography and normal exhibitions of the human body; Pornography is the sexualization of the human body, ie portraying it in sexually explicit ways that serve to depict sexual acts; scanning of human figures standing straight is not pornography; if it is, then a few thousand years of art history needs to be put behind closed doors to protect the public, and the taking of pictures at naturist /nudist camps and nude / topless beaches has to be governed as illegal and anyone taking such pictures arrested for producing pornography; I'll only mention in passing the 'possible' hoard of pictures taken by parents of their children in their Birthday Suits, as cute images of growing up;
Fourth, now our Government in Ottawa has decided to cover it's Cowardliness in the face of possible accusations of wrong doing, to run and hide, hoping that the public will grow weary or be distracted by other events of the day; so that in 3 months Parliament can re-convene and the wrong doing can be swept under the carpet; the problem for the Government is, that there are more problems coming, so what happens then, will the sitting be cut short again, to 'recalibrate' again; the Government cannot run every time it fears opposition; discussion and openness is what our Parliamentary Democracy is based on;
fifth, the Government again has tried to derail an examination of it's care of Native Canadian children on reserves, by appealing on the grounds that they don't believe the venue had the proper authority to examine the issue; by April the Government will have delayed the meetings, by almost a year, and making any effective changes to the lives of the children affected, delayed as well; where is the morality in that; more children today are in the care of Social Services than at any time during the days of when forced integration of Native Children took them off the reserves;
the debate of how to help the children and Native Canadians on Reserves has been an ongoing one for decades, and no one is coming to any sustainable conclusions; just one more study after another; all pigeon holed and left to gather dust; while the Indian Affairs Department, to give it it's old name, just twiddles it's thumbs and does nothing and the Governments of the the day, just ignore the issues, because these people do not have enough political clout to warrant paying attention to; and when they do stand up and fight for their rights, the Governments of the day fight back, instead of dealing with the issues; where is the MORALITY IN THAT!!! WE ARE CANADA, and if we can pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Afghanistan, half a world away and a cultural divide beyond that, why can't we see to it that the people in this country that are as close to us as brothers and sisters are not give an equally fair shake!!

these are not the only examples, I should mention the memorial put up to the victim of an alleged honour killing, in South Western Ontario, and the controversy in the community over the appropriateness of this memorial gesture to a sad death; or the politicizing of a memorial page on Facebook to a young child that recently died put up by it's parents; these are not isolated cases;
we have to find our moral compass again, otherwise cases like these will only multiply and people will become inured to the constant barrage and just give up trying; is this the way The Just Society of the 70's envisaged our country growing??? I for one who grew up in the 50's and 60's don't believe so; come on Canada, lets get it back on track;